Turkish FM to attend Gaza truce talks in Saudi Arabia

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is set to hold talks in Saudi Arabia as part of efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza.

Fidan will meet the Gaza Contact Group, which was formed by Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab League in Riyadh on April 28-29, as well as foreign ministers from several Western countries, the diplomatic sources said on Saturday.

The talks will also cover the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, the sources added.

The contact group was established at a joint summit of the OIC and the Arab League in Saudi Arabia in November to stop the conflict in Gaza and help achieve lasting peace.

The United Nations Security Council had approved a resolution on March 25 calling for an immediate ceasefire but it has never been enacted by Israel.

Türkiye's persistent efforts for ceasefire

Fidan recently visited Qatar, which has been mediating between Israel and the Hamas resistance movement to try to put an end to the Israeli brutal war in Gaza.

Fidan also recently hosted his Egyptian counterpart and was present when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received an official visit by Qatar-based Hamas leader Ismail Haniya on April 20 in Istanbul.

Israel has waged a brutal offensive on Gaza since a cross-border attack led by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on October 7 last year.

Besides killing more than 34,000 Palestinians since then, the Israeli military offensive has turned much of the enclave of 2.3 million people into ruins, leaving most civilians homeless and at risk of famine.